


The Red of You

by whalesprout



Category: Haikyuu!!
Genre: Canon Compliant, Character Study, Drabble, Gen, Haikyuu!! Manga Spoilers
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-07-29
Updated: 2020-07-29
Packaged: 2021-03-06 00:35:47
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 638
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25594396
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/whalesprout/pseuds/whalesprout
Summary: Even eighteen thousand kilometers away from Japan on the worn-down couch of his one-bedroom apartment in Argentina, Oikawa can't seem to keep his mind off a certain Tobio-chan.
Relationships: Kageyama Tobio & Oikawa Tooru
Comments: 3
Kudos: 31





	The Red of You

Oikawa likes to believe that he has no regrets.

His unwavering decision to attend Aoba Johsai over the dominating Shiratorizawa, his plays against Karasuno during his last official match of high school, his lifetime commitment to an airplane ticket that sent him nearly eighteen thousand kilometers away from his peaceful life in the suburbs of Miyagi; although he cannot predict what the future entails, he knows that he would not change the deliberate choices of his past.

But he can’t help regret that one night in his third year of middle school when all he could see was red, red, red. When the feeling of incompetence came crashing down like a wave in a thunderstorm, and all he could see was red, red, red. When his actions were one step ahead of his mind, and in the bright, blue eyes of his uselessly adorable kohai, all he could see was red, red, red.

Oikawa has grown since then. He’s matured with a wider scope on the world, acknowledging the fact that he will never be satisfied; that he will keep climbing the mountain, free from the crashing waves below, only to never reach the top, to only catch a glimpse of the summit above. He’s accepted his ambition, his pride, the fact that he may never reach his limits, and he knows that volleyball is his life; it always has been, and it always will be. He thinks Kageyama has grown, too. After all, Oikawa can’t help but watch Kageyama’s matches (out of pride, admiration, or curiosity, he does not know; perhaps it is a combination of the three) and see the growth in his volleyball, from the way Kageyama smirks after his serve barely grazes the line to the soft smile he has while his hair is ruffled by his teammates.

But when he thinks back to the rumors of the King of the Court, of a little boy whose greatest strength became his greatest flaw, Oikawa can’t help but ask the question: was it me? Was it me who crushed the spirit of a little boy with only pure ambition? Was it me who forced him down a path of desolation and loneliness?

Oikawa has always been able to read people well. Over the course of his years as an athlete, he’s learned to catch the slight nuances in people’s facial expressions, to understand the thoughts of both his teammates and his opponents.

But even then, Kageyama has grown to be a stranger to him; Kageyama is no longer the little chick of his middle school years, learning to fly on his own, nor is he the fledging crow Oikawa saw evolve during their shared year of high school. He has transformed into an entity Oikawa cannot define, cannot grasp fully, and it leaves Oikawa desperate to know the status of their relationship.

So, as such, when he reads an interview in which Kageyama explicitly states that he continues to gain inspiration from him, his trashy senpai from his middle school years, Oikawa can’t help but become flustered, even though no one is watching him while he stares at his smartphone a bit too closely on the worn-down couch of his one-bedroom apartment in Argentina. It gives Oikawa hope, a newfound lightness in his heart that wasn’t there before.

Perhaps things were not okay back then, when they were two young boys barely clinging onto their shared desperation to reach the top.

But they’ve moved past that. Oikawa now knows; they’ve long since moved past that.

* * *

When Oikawa shakes Kageyama’s hand from across the net, he gives the latter a wide grin.

“Let’s settle this once and for all, Tobio-chan.”

The red Oikawa sees in his kohai’s eyes, on the shirts of those on the other side, is no longer a threat, but a challenge. “Let’s.”

**Author's Note:**

> Thank you so much for reading!


End file.
